Tape winding machines are well known in the art. Such machines are used to transfer magnetic recording tape of the sort used in audio or video applications from the large supply reels typically prepared during tape manufacture onto the smaller hubs commonly employed in tape cassettes. See, for example, U.S. Pat Nos. 3,737,358, 4,061,286, 3,753,834, 3,637,153, 3,997,123 and 4,204,898. Such tape winding machines typically receive a pair of hubs connected by a leader tape, sever the leader tape into two sections, splice virgin or prerecorded magnetic tape to the leader tape section attached to a first of the hubs, wind a predetermined amount of magnetic tape onto that hub, and then splice the trailing end of the wound magnetic tape to the leader tape section attached to the second of the hubs. Machines currently exist for conducting this tape splicing and winding operation either before the hubs are mounted in a cassette or, alternatively, after the hubs have been mounted in a cassette.
Tape winding machines of the sort described above typically employ splicing tape dispenser-applicators to splice the supply and leader tapes together during the splicing operations described above. One preferred type of splicing tape dispenser-applicator now in common use, and described and illustrated in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,835, uses a reciprocating plunger assembly to cut a piece of splicing tape from a source of splicing tape and then press it against the two tapes to be spliced. The splicing tape then serves to effect the splice between the two subject tapes. The reciprocating plunger is made of metal and travels in a vertical guide channel which is defined by metal parts. A close sliding fit is required between the metal plunger and the vertical channel in order to assure that the plunger will be properly delivered to the point where the splice is to be made.
Unfortunately, over the course of repeated operation of the splicing tape dispenser-applicator, significant wearing of the various metal members occurs as a result of this metal-on-metal contact. One consequence of this wearing process is deterioration of the close sliding fit between the plunger and the guide channel. Since the close sliding fit is essential to satisfactory operation, the plunger and/or the metal members which define the vertical channel eventually have to be replaced. Such replacement tends to increase the "down-time" of the tape winding machine, thereby lowering the winding machine's productivity as well as increasing maintenance costs.
An even more important consequence of the aforementioned wearing process is that a fine metallic dust tends to build up within the vertical channel. This fine metallic dust may impede easy movement of the plunger within the vertical channel, thereby slowing operation of the splicing tape dispenser-applicator and necessitating frequent cleaning and lubrication of the plunger and the vertical channel. Such frequent cleaning and lubrication also tends to increase the "down-time" of the tape winding machine.